Thoughtful Thursday Links

I'm taking this title from somewhere, but I can't remember where. (Was it my friend Harmonic Mama?) Regardless, I give credit to where ever I took it from... I just added the "links" part.

Change Simply's Thoughtful Thursday Links is going to be a weekly post with some of the links and articles that I have been reading and researching throughout the week that I feel are worth sharing. Some will be more relevant than others, but all of them are for you to take what you need from and maybe even follow up on if need be. Tell me what you are thinking and feeling about some of this stuff! Quite frankly, I feel like there is so much info and so many ideas out there that I can't keep up the research to share.

That said, here are my (somewhat random) Thoughtful Thursday links for today, in no particular order:

This article talks about plastic waste in India and has some good points, but I urge you to read the comments as well, there are some great points there as well.

This article talks about how food is the primary source of BPA exposure for preschool aged children.

Don't get me started on this blog post, which talks about how to be environmentally conscious and take a vacation to Disney world. Yes, the excitement that my children would have there might be worth it in the moment, but I bet I could help my kids learn to find other ways to get that excited and happy about things that are more simple and have a much smaller carbon footprint. Oh, and costs less and doesn't give my hard earned cash to a big corporation.

This article may seem a bit off topic at first, but once you start to understand how important every decision that we make is, especially for our children and the way they learn, you will understand why I put it in here. It is about why and how learning to read is taught in Waldorf schools the way it is. You certainly don't have to agree with this one, but I do and this is one of the things that I read about this week and wanted to share. You might find some of your questions answered or you might totally disagree, regardless, it's worth a read if you've got time.
And just a side comment - one of the things that helps me feel as though my family is being supported in our lifestyle is being apart of the Waldorf community. There is so much connection and appreciation of nature that it makes it much easier for us (and others who are thinking similarly). Also, the simple fact that respect and consciousness is a part of the education makes all the difference.

And lastly, if you don't have the time to read any of these articles, at least take a moment to watch this trailer for a documentary called Dive that is about how much food ends up being thrown away every day. I have not seen this film yet, but it is certainly being added to my growing list of things to watch.

Look forward to more random links next Thursday!